Cooling appliance and dispenser system used for cooling appliance

ABSTRACT

A cooling appliance ( 100 ) is provided, including a heat insulation cabinet ( 10 ), in which a storage chamber is formed; and a door ( 11 ), which cooperates with the heat insulation cabinet ( 10 ) to selectively open or close the storage chamber. The cooling appliance ( 100 ) further includes an dispenser system ( 20 ) capable of allocating ice and liquid, where the dispenser system ( 20 ) is used for allocating ice in an ice storage container of the cooling appliance ( 100 ) into an dispenser cavity ( 21 ). The dispenser system ( 20 ) includes an ice channel ( 40 ) and a splash-proof component ( 30 ), where the splash-proof component ( 30 ) includes a buffering part, so as to be used for absorbing at least one part of kinetic energy of ice when the ice passes through, to reduce spreading and splashing of the ice.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present invention relates to a cooling appliance and an dispensersystem used for the cooling appliance, and in particular, to a coolingappliance capable of allocating ice and liquid and an dispenser systemused for the cooling system.

2. Related Art

In the prior art, a cooling appliance with an dispenser system has beenprovided, such as a refrigerator. The dispenser system is generallydisposed in a door of a cooling appliance, and is accessible outside thedoor, for a user to place containers. The dispenser system includes anice channel and a liquid delivery channel, capable of selectivelyallocating liquid or ice made in the cooling appliance to thecontainers, so that the user can obtain ice or liquid, such as water,without opening the door of the cooling appliance, thereby bringingconvenience to the lives of people.

Generally, in the dispenser system of a cooling appliance, asplash-proof component is disposed close to an outlet of the icechannel, used for controlling an ice dispenser direction. Thesplash-proof component is generally made of a rigid material. Ice hasgreat kinetic energy when falling to the outlet through the ice channel,and then hits the splash-proof component, resulting in irregular changesof a direction of kinetic energy of ice, thereby causing ice splashing,resulting in that the ice may not be accurately allocated to acontainer. In addition, ice with high kinetic energy may possibly bringpotential safety risks to a user when taking ice.

SUMMARY

An objective of the present invention is to provide an dispenser systemused for a cooling appliance, capable of reducing ice splashing duringice dispenser.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a coolingappliance that adopts the foregoing dispenser system.

In order to achieve one of the foregoing objectives, the presentinvention provides an dispenser system used for a cooling appliance,where the dispenser system includes an ice delivery path and asplash-proof component located in the ice delivery path, where thesplash-proof component includes a buffering part, so as to be used forabsorbing at least one part of kinetic energy of ice when the ice passesthrough, and the buffering part is made of a resilient material.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the resilientmaterial includes synthetic rubber.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the resilientmaterial is selected from silicon rubber, or polyvinyl chloride (PVC)rubber, or neoprene rubber, or a combination thereof.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the splash-proofcomponent has an expandable opening allowing ice to pass through.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the opening iscircular, having an initial radial size and an expansion radial size.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the initial radialsize is less than or equal to 22 mm.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the expansion radialsize ranges from 22 mm to 60 mm.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the buffering partfurther has a circular ice inlet, the ice inlet has a first radial size,and a ratio of the initial radial size to the first radial size is lessthan or equal to ½, particularly between ⅓ and ⅜.

As a further improvement to the present invention, at least one slit isdisposed on the buffering part.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the slit or anextension line of the slit passes through the center of the splash-proofcomponent.

As a further improvement to the present invention, the number of theslits is 3 or 4.

As a further improvement to the present invention, one end of the slitis closed and the other end is open, and a cut angle is formed at theclosed end of the slit; the cut angle becomes larger when the ice passesthrough, and restores after the ice passes through.

In order to fulfill another objective of the present invention, thepresent invention further provides a cooling appliance, including:

a heat insulation cabinet, in which a storage chamber is formed; and

a door, which cooperates with the heat insulation cabinet to open orclose the storage chamber.

The cooling appliance further includes the dispenser system according toany item of the above invention content located on the door.

The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: thesplash-proof component of the dispenser system is disposed with abuffering part made of a resilient material; therefore, when ice fallsthrough the buffering part, the buffering part absorbs a part of kineticenergy of ice, to slow down a falling speed of the ice, so as tosmoothly leading the ice to the corresponding container.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic three-dimensional diagram of a specific embodimentof a cooling appliance according to of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional diagram of a specific embodiment of andispenser system of a cooling appliance and an ice-making systemdisposed in the cooling appliance according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic three-dimensional diagram of a bottom view of asplash-proof component and an installation frame to which thesplash-proof component is connected in a dispenser system of the coolingappliance shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is similar to FIG. 3, in which an ice outlet of a buffering partof the splash-proof component is in expansion state;

FIG. 5 is a schematic three-dimensional diagram of a top view of thesplash-proof component of the dispenser system shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is similar to FIG. 5, in which an ice outlet of a buffering partof a splash-proof component is in expansion state;

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional diagram of a splash-proof componentshown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional diagram of the splash-proof componentshown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a top view of the splash-proof component shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is a top view of the splash-proof component shown in FIG. 6; and

FIG. 11 is a front view of a splash-proof component and an installationframe shown in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is described in detail in the following withreference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.However, these embodiments do not limit the present invention. Allstructural, methodological and functional changes made by persons ofordinary skill in the art according to these embodiments should fallwithin the protection scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a specific embodiment of a cooling applianceaccording to the present invention. In this embodiment, the coolingappliance 100 includes: a heat insulation cabinet 10, in which a storagechamber (not shown) is formed; and a door 11, including, in thisembodiment, a pair of double doors that is pivotally installed on theheat insulation cabinet 10 through hinges (not shown), cooperating withthe heat insulation cabinet 10 to selectively open or close the storagechamber.

As a conventional cooling appliance, the storage chamber in thisembodiment may also include a freezing chamber and a refrigeratingchamber. The cooling appliance 100 further includes a dispenser system20, where the dispenser system 20 may be used for allocating liquid(such as water) and ice in an ice storage container (not shown) of thecooling appliance 100 to a dispenser cavity 21. In this embodiment, thedispenser cavity 21 is formed by recessing an outer surface of the door11 inwards.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a dispenser system installed in the doorof the cooling appliance according to the present invention. Referringto FIG. 2, the dispenser system 20 includes an ice delivery path P fromthe ice storage container to the dispenser cavity 21. The ice deliverypath P includes an ice outlet 33 located on a terminal of the path anddisposed above the dispenser cavity 21. Ice (such as an ice block ortrash ice) is discharged into a receiving container located in thedispenser cavity 21 through the ice outlet 33. In this embodiment, theice delivery path P includes an ice channel 40 passing through the door11. The ice is discharged from an outlet 41 of the ice channel 40 andmoves towards the ice outlet 33. The outlet 41 may be selectively openedor closed by a closing component (not shown).

The dispenser system generally further includes a water delivery channel(not shown), used for allocating drinking water stored in the coolingappliance to the dispenser cavity 21. An dispenser mechanism of ice andwater is known by persons of ordinary skill in the art, and the detailsare not described herein again.

Referring to FIG. 3 to FIG. 10, the dispenser system 20 further has asplash-proof component 30 disposed close to the outlet 41 of the icechannel 40. In this embodiment, the splash-proof component 30 isinstalled inside the door through an installation frame 23, used for icedischarged from the outlet 41 to pass through, and leading the ice to acontainer placed in the dispenser cavity 21.

In this embodiment, the splash-proof component 30 includes aninstallation part and a buffering part. The buffering part isapproximately in an inverted cone shape. Such a shape is capable ofrestricting ice from spreading and splashing around after beingdischarged, so that the ice can enter the container (not shown) in thedispenser cavity 21 more accurately. The buffering part has a circularice outlet 33 located at the bottom and used for ice to pass through toenter the dispenser cavity 21, and an ice inlet 22 at the top and moreclose to the outlet 41 of the ice channel 40. The installation part is acircular ring formed by a top portion of the buffering part radiallyextending outwards, and is connected to the installation frame 23through a post-forming process. It should be understood that, theinstallation part of the splash-proof component 30 may be connected tothe installation frame 23 through other known connection methods such asadhesives and pressing.

In this embodiment, the splash-proof component 30 is made of a resilientmaterial. Compared with a splash-proof component 30 in the prior artthat is generally made of a rigid material, the splash-proof component30 herein absorbs a part of or even all kinetic energy of ice when icehits the splash-proof component 30, thereby avoiding irregular splashingof the ice as much as possible, so that the ice slows down to passthrough the ice outlet 33 and enters the dispenser cavity 21. In otherembodiments, it is feasible that only the buffering part of thesplash-proof component 30 is made of a resilient material, and theinstallation part is made of another material. The resilient materialmay include a flexible material, a deformable material, or any materialthat help better absorption of kinetic energy of ice, such as syntheticrubber, preferably, silicon rubber, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) rubber,neoprene rubber, or a combination thereof. It should be understood that,in a replacement embodiment, the splash-proof component 30 may be madeof another material. For example, the deformable buffering part (thatis, several elastic sheets, elaborated in the following) may also bemade of sheet metal or plastic tabs/films easy to be bent.

Referring to FIG. 3 to FIG. 6, in this embodiment, the ice outlet 33 ofthe splash-proof component 30 is expandable. Compared with a fixedopening in the prior art, a smaller initial radial size may be set forthe ice outlet 33, so that the buffering part 31 of the splash-proofcomponent 30 can also effectively buffer smaller-sized ice.

In this embodiment, a slit 31 is disposed on the buffering part of thesplash-proof component 30. The slit 31 extends from the ice outlet 33 tothe installation part, without passing through the installation part.Preferably, an extension line of the slit 31 passes through the centerof the splash-proof component 30. Persons skilled in the art may easilythink of that, an initial radial size of the ice outlet 33 may be 0.That is, in this case, the slit 31 passes through the center of thesplash-proof component 30. At least one slit 31 is disposed on thesplash-proof component 30. As a preferred embodiment, the number of theslits may be 3 or 4, equally dividing the buffering part into severalelastic sheets 32.

The dispenser system is further disposed with a water outlet 50, incommunication with a liquid delivery channel (not shown), to allocateliquid into the dispenser cavity 21.

Referring to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, in this embodiment, the ice inlet 22 ofthe splash-proof component 30 has a first radial size Φ1, and the iceoutlet 33 of the splash-proof component 30 has an initial radial size Φ2and an expansion radial size Φ3. As mentioned above, since the iceoutlet 33 is expandable, the initial radial size Φ2 of the opening maybe set to be relatively small. For example, a ratio of the initialradial size Φ2 to the first radial size Φ1 is less than or equal to 12,preferably, between 13 and 38. In this embodiment, the initial radialsize Φ2 of the ice outlet 33 is less than or equal to 22 mm, such as 22mm; and the first radial size Φ1 is 62 mm.

Referring to FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, one end of the slit 31 is closed andthe other end is open, and a cut angle ang is formed at the closed end.

In this embodiment, when ice enters from the ice inlet 22 of thesplash-proof component 30 and then is discharged through the ice outlet33, each elastic sheet 32 of the buffering part is bent and deformed dueto an ice impact, and a distance between the adjacent elastic sheetsbecomes larger. In this case, an opening formed at a bottom of eachelastic sheet 32 expands, so that the value of the expansion radial sizeΦ3 may reach up to 60 mm; the cut angle ang becomes larger because thedistance between the adjacent elastic sheets becomes larger. Since thebuffering part is made of a resilient material, when ice passes throughthe ice outlet 33, each elastic sheet 32 of the buffering part restoresto an original state. Correspondingly, the size of the ice outlet 33restores to the initial radial size Φ2, and the cut angle ang alsorestores to an original angle. In this embodiment, the cut angle is setto 0 when no ice passes through.

An angle between a surface defined by the outlet 41 of the ice channel40 and a surface defined by the ice inlet 22 of the splash-proofcomponent 30 is an acute angle, which ensures that under the action ofinertia, ice smoothly enters the ice inlet 22 of the splash-proofcomponent 30 at a relatively accurate angle.

As mentioned above, in the prior art, to minimize the possibility of icesplashing when ice passes through the splash-proof component 30, asmaller ice outlet 33 may be disposed. Preferably, the several elasticsheets (that is, the buffering part) forming the ice outlet 33 are madeof a resilient material, and therefore are expandable. Then thesplash-proof component 30 can properly adjust the size of the ice outlet33 according to the size of ice passing through and the amount of icepassing through in a unit time, to achieve a relatively desirabledispenser rate.

Referring to FIG. 7, FIG. 8 and FIG. 11, the overall splash-proofcomponent 30 may generally be set to a shape that gradually narrows fromtop to bottom. In this embodiment, the splash-proof component 30 ispreferably set to an inverted cone shape. Since the splash-proofcomponent 30 is disposed in the dispenser cavity 21, the disposition ofthe inverted cone shape not only implements the foregoing substantialfunctions, but also fulfills aesthetic needs of people.

In the foregoing embodiments, the ice outlet 33 is jointly restricted bylower edges of the elastic sheets 32. However, in a replacementembodiment, several deformable elastic sheets may be directly disposedin the ice outlet 33 to directly form the buffering part. When icepasses through the ice outlet, the elastic sheets are deformed toexpand/open the ice outlet and absorb at least one part of kineticenergy of ice, and the ice falls into the receiving container throughthe expanded ice outlet. The advantage of using the elastic sheetslocated in the ice outlet to directly form the splash-proof componentlies in that, by directly disposing the ice outlet on an upper wall ofthe dispenser cavity, the splash-proof component obviously extendinginto the dispenser cavity shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. 6 may be saved.

The cooling appliance 100 adopts the dispenser system 20 described inthe foregoing embodiments, and can allocate ice and liquid withoutopening the door of the cooling appliance, which is convenient for use.In addition, the splash-proof component 30 is disposed, which caneffectively reduce overhigh kinetic energy of ice due to inertia of iceto prevent the ice from spreading and splashing, and accurately andsafely allocate ice of different sizes and of different flows into thecontainer in the dispenser cavity 21. Moreover, the dispenser system 20is embedded in the door 11, which does not bring any redundant volume torefrigerators, thereby being practical and convenient.

For persons skilled in the art, obviously, the present invention is notlimited to the foregoing details of exemplary embodiments, and can beimplemented through other specific forms without departing from thespirit or basic characteristics of the present invention. Therefore,seen from whichever point, the embodiments should be construed asexemplary, but not restrictive. The scope of the present invention issubject to the appended claims but not the foregoing description.Therefore, all changes falling within the meanings and scope of theequivalent requirements of the claims should be included in the presetinvention. Any mark of the accompanying drawings in the claims shouldnot be regarded as limitation to the related claims.

Besides, it should be understood that, although the specification isdescribed according to the embodiments, each embodiment does not includemerely one independent technical solution. The narration mode of thespecification is for the sake of clarity. Persons skilled in the artshould regard the specification as a whole. The technical solutions ofthe embodiments may be properly combined, to form other embodiments thatmay be understood by persons skilled in the art.

1. A dispenser system used for a cooling appliance wherein, thedispenser system comprises an ice delivery path and a splash-proofcomponent located in the ice delivery path and the splash-proofcomponent comprises a buffering part for absorbing at least a part ofkinetic energy of ice when the ice passes through, wherein, thebuffering part is made of a flexible material.
 2. The dispenser systemaccording to claim 1, wherein: the resilient material comprisessynthetic rubber.
 3. The dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein:resilient material is selected from silicon rubber, or polyvinylchloride rubber, or neoprene rubber, or a combination thereof.
 4. Thedispenser system according to claim 1, wherein: the splash-proofcomponent has an expandable opening allowing the ice to pass through. 5.The dispenser system according to claim 4, characterized in that: theopening is circular, having an initial radial size and an expansionradial size.
 6. The dispenser system according to claim 5, wherein: theinitial radial size is less than or equal to 22 mm.
 7. The dispensersystem according to claim 5, wherein: the expansion radial size rangesfrom 22 mm to 60 mm.
 8. The dispenser system according to claim 5,wherein: the buffering part further has a circular ice inlet the iceinlet has a first radial size, and a ratio of the initial radial size tothe first radial size is less than or equal to 12, particularly between⅓ and ⅜.
 9. The dispenser system according to claim 1, wherein: at leastone slit is disposed on the buffering part.
 10. The dispenser systemaccording to claim 9, wherein: the slit or an extension line of the slitpasses through the center of the splash-proof component.
 11. Thedispenser system according to claim 9, wherein: the number of the slits3 or
 4. 12. The dispenser system according to claim 9, characterized inthat: one end of the slit is closed and the other end is open, and a cutangle is formed at the closed end of the slit; the cut angle becomeslarger when the ice passes through, and restores after the ice passesthrough.
 13. A cooling appliance, comprising: a heat insulation cabinet,in which a storage chamber is formed; and a door, which cooperates withthe heat insulation cabinet open or close the storage chamber,characterized in that, the cooling appliance further comprises adispenser system according to claim 1, the dispenser system beinglocated on the door.